iTunes' Official Music Charts for the week ending Jan. 30, 2012:
Top Songs:
1. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," Kelly Clarkson
2. "Set Fire to the Rain," ADELE
3. "Turn Me On (feat. Nicki Minaj)," Nicki Minaj, David Guetta
4. "Rack City," Tyga
5. "Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars)," Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg
6. "Good Feeling," Flo Rida
7. "Domino," Jessie J
8. "We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)," Rihanna
9. "International Love (feat. Chris Brown)," Pitbull
10. "Sexy and I Know It," LMFAO
___
Top Albums:
1. "21", ADELE
2. "Human Again," Ingrid Michaelson
3. "Emotional Traffic," Tim McGraw
4. "Resolution," Lamb of God
5. "Where I Find You," Kari Jobe
6. "Take Care," Drake
7. "Bangarang," Skrillex
8. "Soul 2," Seal
9. "El Camino," The Black Keys
10. "Sigh No More," Mumford & Sons
___
(copyright) 2012 Apple, Inc.
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Our lives are filled with spam. It has many names and comes in many forms, from email to snail mail to text messages and more. With the help of technology, as well as some clever thinking, it's not too difficult to filter out all the unwanted crap in your life. Here's how to do it. 
Setting up a Google Voice account is the easiest way to block unwanted calls. Any annoying callers can be blocked quickly and easily via the Google Voice web app. You just log in, find a text message they sent, click the "more" link by that message, and choose "Block caller."
Android users have quite a few options to block unwanted callers, and all are free. Of the bunch, we like DroidBlock because it's simple, it can block specific numbers and unknown callers, and it can send an SMS reply to let spammers know that they're being filtered.
For starters, sign up for the official Do Not Call list if you haven't already. It can help significantly, though it doesn't completely prevent telemarketers from calling. Additionally, it does absolutely nothing against other types of calls you want to block on your landline phone.
Like with calls, setting up a Google Voice account is the easiest way to filter out unwanted text messages. Any offending texters can be blocked quickly and easily via the Google Voice web app. You just log in, find a text message they sent, click the "more" link by that message, and choose "Block caller."
Android users have quite a few options to block unwanted texters. Handcent SMS and BlackList are two free filters. PrivacyStar will cost you a few bucks per months, but if their app doesn't successfully block the offending texter you can contact them and they'll take care of the problem for you. (PrivacyStar is also available for BlackBerry.)
If your email service or app provides filtering options, you should consider making a whitelist that sorts your email by priority. All you need to do is create a filter that is designed to ignore important messages and leave them in the inbox, but move everything else into a secondary folder (or label, if you're a Gmail user). This way only email senders you've designated as important will show up in your inbox and you can check the secondary folder when you have a bit more time. Whitelists have the disadvantage of being too strict, but since you'll be checking both your primary and now secondary inbox you won't have to worry too much about that. The filter isn't set in stone, either, so you'll be able to update it as needed until it's working great for you.
Sometimes you sign up for newsletters unintentionally and you find yourself stuck with a bunch of mail you don't want to read. You can get rid of it quickly by doing a quick search for the word "unsubscribe" and creating a filter that automatically deletes emails with that word in it. Of course, that system is imperfect because it's possible?however unlikely?that it will catch a message that's not a newsletter. Alternatively, you can use a service like Unroll.me that's designed to find all the newsletters in your inbox and help you easily unsubscribe without hassle. (Note: This service only works with popular online email providers, not any IMAP inbox, and is currently in closed beta. In the meantime you can sign up for an invite. If you use this link you'll be placed on the priority list.) Gmail users can also employ the Unsubscribe.com button to easily unsubscribe from mailing lists with one click when they want out. It requires more manual work, but gets the job done all the same.
If you're willing to pay a small fee (generally $20-30) to clean out your physical mailbox, services like Greendimes, 41 Pounds, and Stop the Junk Mail can take care of the problem for you. All you do is provide a information about you and your problem address and the services will make the necessary calls to get you off of junk and grey mail lists. While they won't be able to stop 100% of the unwanted mail you receive, the reduction rates are usually between 85 and 90%. That's a big difference.
If you're really willing to throw some money at the problem?$20 per month, to be exact?you should check out Earth Class Mail. You can forward all your mail to them and they'll put it into their web app so you can view it like email. They'll open and scan your mail by request, or physically mail it to you if you'd prefer. While this won't eliminate the spam in your physical inbox, it'll reduce the recycling process to about two clicks.
If you want to attempt to prevent delivery from certain senders, you can do this the old fashioned way. Simply mark your mail with "RETURN TO SENDER" and leave it for the postman the next day. While this method won't ensure you don't receive mail from certain senders, with persistence it will encourage it. And if you're receiving mail for a former resident, you can simply mark that with "MOVED" instead.
Not all unwanted deliveries come from the post office, and one of the worst offenders is the phone book. It requires a lot of paper and ink to print and most of us done need them anymore. Nonetheless, they just keep coming. If you want to stop your phone book delivery, The Daily Green suggests opting out at Yellow Pages Goes Green and the National Yellow Pages Consumer Choice and Opt-Out Site. Unfortunately, opting out on both of those sites won't always do the trick. Some local publishers will not honor those lists and you'll need to call them directly to avoid delivery.
Facebook is actually very good at filtering spam if you're using it the way Zuckerberg intended. If you only friend people you know, your primary Facebook inbox will only contain messages from those people. Any other messages will end up in a secondary inbox. In general, this system works very well but if you can't seem to get rid of a problem "friend" on Facebook you can just block them. You begin by visiting your Privacy Settings page. From there, choose the type of blocking you want. You can add a friend to your Restricted list, which will only allow them to see public updates. (It'll be like they've subscribed to you but aren't really friends with you.) You can also block a user using their name or email address. Additionally, you can block event and app invites if you don't want them. Just fill in the required information for whatever type of blocking you need and you'll be all set.
Twitter doesn't do much to preemptively dispatch spam messages, but you can do a few things to lower your chances of becoming a target and definitely block unwanted senders should they come along. The Social Media Examiner suggests opting out of Twitter promotional services. SocialOomph is a popular one, and you can opt out of their messages by following @optmeout, waiting for @optmeout to automatically follow you back, sending @optmeout a direct message, and then unfollowing @optmeout. Additionally, you can use spam-blocking services to seek out Twitter spammers and rmeove them. StopTweet only requires a quick sign-in to Twitter, a few choices, and it'll remove any spammers it finds that are following you. If you do end up with Twitter spam that opting our or spam-scanning doesn't catch, it's very easy to block the sender manually. Just visit their Twitter page, click the menu with the silhouette of a person, and choose "Block _____." (See the image to the right for an example.)